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Leveraging Social Media to Engage Students

A post from Dan Black, Americas Director of Recruiting, Ernst & Young LLP
2013-14 NACE President

On Thursday, August 22, I’ll be moderating a panel of employers as they discuss their digital engagement strategies at the NACE Social Media Mashup (#NACESocial).

We’ll be discussing best practices, including how to leverage social media to engage students.

At Symantec, for example, Emma Hooks and her team don’t just use social media to push content: Instead, they’ve built a lot of interactivity into their Facebook page. (The downside according to Emma: Maintaining the Facebook page in real time can be challenging.)

eBay focuses on just-in-time interactions, responding to posts 24/7/365. Jen Lamorena says eBay has very clear goals for all of its social media channels, and sees that having a “face” or “voice” behind eBay’s efforts is critical.

InternMatch provides unique content to its target audience while maintaining a voice that is true to the company’s culture and brand, explains Ashley Mosley. InternMatch also uses Google+, a tool that many employers are eager to learn more about.

And Emily Vera says Northrop Grumman strives for the “viral reach” by focusing its strategy on generating quality content that not only engages its immediate following, but prompts them to share it so it reaches an exponentially higher number of users.

Also of particular note during the Mashup will be the introduction of NACE’s Career Counselor’s Guides to Social Media in the Job Search. Written by career services professional for careers services professionals, these free resources cover LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and blogs, and will help practitioners assist their students in creating strong profiles, networking and connecting, and finding jobs and internships on these networks. (Thanks to Kevin Grubb, Villanova University; Shannon Kelly, University of Pennsylvania; and Megan Wolleben, Bucknell University, for all their work!)

I’m excited to be a part of this unique event and I’m eager to share the ways we at EY use social media to brand ourselves and attract top talent. And because of the robust group of presenters and attendees and the breadth of the programming, I know I’ll leave San Jose with a greater knowledge of how we can leverage social media to achieve our goals.